


Halloween Holdup

by Arsoemon



Series: Holidays! [1]
Category: Persona 5, Persona Series
Genre: Gen, Halloween, Hijinks & Shenanigans, Light-Hearted, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-31
Updated: 2019-10-31
Packaged: 2021-01-15 22:42:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,457
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21260822
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arsoemon/pseuds/Arsoemon
Summary: Just a Halloween party.... Nothing more. Except spoilers after the break....





	Halloween Holdup

**Author's Note:**

> There are spoilers after the break, so proceed as you wish.

"It's been forever since we celebrated something." Ryuji earns a few glances. "Ooh! Let's do a Halloween party!" Akira looks up from his phone.

"You know, that might actually be fun," Makoto agrees.

"Should we do a group costume?" Ann looks around.

"Any ideas on what that could be?" Makoto pulls out a notebook.

Morgana stops grooming himself long enough to interject, "How about phantom thieves?"

"Meta." Akira continues scrolling on his phone as Futaba gives him a "screw you" look.

"We'll uh add it to the list. Any other ideas?"

Ryuji is just opening his mouth when Futaba points, "If you say Mario or Featherman, I will slap you."

"Ah c'mon! You can't tell me there aren't some obvious matches in the group. You and Ann could be Daisy and Peach. I'd be Bowser. Akira would be Mario, obviously. Yusuke would be Waluigi."

"Who would Queen, Mona, and I be?" Haru asks.

Ryuji thinks a moment. "There's Rosetta, oh and Toadette has pink hair. Mona, you'd be a goomba everyone steps on."

"You wanna go, punk?!"

"Who says I want to be a princess?" Ann scowls.

"Could I be Bowser?" Haru raises her hand.

"No no, you," Futaba points to Ryuji, "are one of the Kongs. I'd make a killer Yoshi."

"Why am I a villain?"

"Cuz you're creepy as hell, and everyone was upset when they heard you wouldn't Smash," Ryuji stretches nonchalantly, and Akira chokes on absolutely nothing.

"I assumed it was the legs," Futaba shrugs. Yusuke deflates, and Akira passes him another pack of salad sticks in consolation.

"Maybe group costumes aren't such a good idea this year." Makoto puts down her pencil with a sigh, still eyeing Ryuji.

"Will it just be us?" Haru pets Morgana.

Ryuji rests his elbows on the table. "Think we should invite others?"

"Will Boss be okay with that?"

"We can always ask, right?" Everyone looks to Akira who looks to Futaba.

"He would kick me in the face." Everyone else looks to Futaba, too.

"Heh heh, leave it to me!"

* * *

Akechi arrives dressed as a warden. The backstreets of Yongen-Jaya are far busier than usual with costumed revelers buzzing around the stores, restaurants, and theater. He manages to make it into Leblanc without anyone spotting him, and he attempts to scope out the Phantom Thieves.

He spies Akira easily enough, the ring master carrying plates and cups around. A large hand darts past his feet and out the door, and he realizes it's that cat. He spots a short girl dressed as Wednesday Addams working the counter with the owner who he assumes is Gomez, and the hand suddenly makes sense. His eyes land on a tall figure in white with long black hair who he assumes is from _The Ring_ just as a pirate brushes past him, turning him around. He turns back toward the stairs, but the mysterious ring figure is nowhere in sight. He's looking around for her when he sees Maleficent walk in with a zombie cop and a sugar plum fairy. As he stares, he gets jostled around, somehow ending up outside with the large crowd loitering in the streets.

He turns and walks back into Leblanc. But the lights are out, and aside from the ticking clock and the faint sound of calliope music, there's no sign that there had been anyone here in years, let alone mere seconds ago. He's frozen in place, the light flooding in from the other side of the glass door only extending so far. The total darkness is unsettling, and he hears a shuffling sound from the other end of the room. Assuming—hoping—it's just the owner trying to get the lights back on, he calls out. "Sakura-San? Do you need any help?"

He takes a few slow, shaky steps forward. Before he can take another, he hears his own voice from elsewhere in the cafe. _Case closed. This is how your justice ends_. There's a loud bang followed by a bright flash that startles him off his feet. He inches toward the door backward, eyes fixed on the spot where the flash had come from until something brushes across his back. He turns slowly and finds a dark figure silhouetted by the light from the outside. He springs to his feet and takes a couple of steps backward, further into the darkness, but stops when he recognizes the shape of the hair—the notably curly hair. He relaxes the slightest bit. "It's you. Very funny. I must admit you caught me off guard." The faintest glow hits Akira's face, and Akechi stiffens at the gaping, bleeding hole in the other boy's head. He cowers at the sight.

The specter lifts his hand slowly, pointing at Akechi's head. Akechi can't tell what the specter's holding, but he raises his hands and begins to back away until he's stopped by a cold hand wrapping firmly around his throat. He turns hesitantly to see what terror lurks behind him. He catches a menacing glint of teeth just before something swipes his legs out from under him. He looks up to his left and sees Makoto, the blonde, and the Okumura girl with their mysteriously illuminated heads dangling from their hands, looks of terror, shock, and anger frozen on them. It's getting increasingly harder to breathe, and his attention is drawn away by a familiar click—a cocking gun. He tries his best to sink into the floor as the horrible figures—which now include a blood-splattered incandescent skeleton—creep closer to him, a ghastly ring closing around him like a noose. He comes face to face with Akira's ghost once more. The cold, dead look in the eyes beyond the gun strikes him with a terror he had never known before. "Please spare me...!" he manages to whimper out. The specter smiles wildly and pulls the trigger.

A cold sensation hits his forehead, and a liquid begins to flow rather quickly. _Why is it so thin?_ he wonders. Then it occurs to him that he can still wonder. He had heard that it takes the mind time to shut down even once the body has. He considers opening his eyes to assess the situation but isn't sure he wants his final moments to be steeped in any more suffering. He feels two more blasts of cold on his face and slowly blinks. It takes a while for realization to set in. The lights are back on, and at least two of the figures still surrounding him are laughing.

"You should see your face! Tell me you guys got that!" The skeleton points, doubled over in laughter and general poor posture. _Sakamoto_?

"Heh heh heh!" Futaba high-fives a boy with short black hair and a camera who Akechi doesn't recall meeting. He looks to what he thought was the reanimated corpse of the closest thing he'd ever had to a friend for any sort of explanation. Akira "shoots" him again before aiming for his own mouth and pulling the trigger.

"Fruit punch," he offers Akechi a napkin. Still in shock, Akechi feels his face. "Yusuke, you can let go now."

"Are you certain?" Akechi attempts another look at the figure behind him. His eyes follow the long, flowing lines of a white gown and parted black wig,and he's chilled to the bone at both the look in Yusuke's eyes and this new awareness at the nails digging into his skin.

Akira smirks. "I think he's learned." With a slight squeeze, Yusuke unhands him.

Akira offers him a hand this time that he hesitantly accepts.

"Wha-? How did you...?"

"Simple. Futaba and Mishima handled all the tech stuff,"

"Lighting, sound, recording....child's play," Futaba shrugs.

"Ann and Yusuke handled the costume and makeup,"

"Strangely cathartic. Though I would much prefer to never see another hole in your face again, Joker."

Akira smiles sheepishly at him and covers the "wound" with his hair before continuing. "Haru and Makoto made sure we had the crowd we needed and that you were part of it,"

"I gave our employees the day off and _subtly_ mentioned a celebration in Yongen."

"With your obsession with all things Phantom Thieves even now that we're no longer formal enemies, you practically did my job for me."

"And I made sure no one killed you while the lights were out."

Akechi gives a half laugh. "Simple, huh?"

"If you've got the right team." Akira pats him on the back as he smiles at his Thieves.

"I suppose this is the least I deserve." Akechi wipes at the drying juice on his face.

Akira's expression shifts into something colder, his sardonic smile serving to emphasize his warning. "Think twice before you double cross a trickster."

**Author's Note:**

> If you haven’t already, I recommend watching The Average Phantom Thieves Meeting 2: Handling the SIU by FriedSoup on YouTube. It’s a personal favorite and loosely inspired this one. Thanks for reading and have an awesome Halloween!


End file.
